eBusiness Weekly
Continued from 4 October
Then the shipment finally arrives at the border. The Customs Officer comes out guns blazing at me, issues a Form 45 Request to amend. She being in “layman mode and collect as much revenue mode” advises me that the Kelloggs shipment needs an Import License in terms of SI 64 line 30 of the first schedule. She wants me to pay a $2000 fine for importing without a license and detains the shipment.
The Ministry of Industry has cut out a duel between ZIMRA and the Importer. It has or is trying to convert us into a “Thabani Mpofu and Lewis Uriri” pair. ZIMRA being the heavy handed brother wins partly because my client wants the product and is not willing to take up the fight for its duration which is likely to be long.
Even where a ZIMRA officer has made an erroneous discretionary decision, they are not willing to reverse it for fear of internal reprisals. It is a complicated affair as there are issues to do with stock turnaround, capital tied up in stock under dispute and cost of taking up a dispute. I do not get to argue my case with ZIMRA. Funny enough, the Ministry of Industry does issue a license for the Kelloggs, tariff 1904:1090 which is clearly not 1904:1010. My client begrudgingly pays the $2 000 fine. I become the loser by default.
For God’s sake is this how we are going to work? Next time I have to tell my client, according to the legislation this does not require a license, but according to some discretionary inferences of a ZIMRA officer, it might need one. I will not be responsible for another $2000 loss for my client.
But there is no longer any Customs expertise at work here. We are all turning into lawyers by default. If we are going to give ZIMRA people so much discretion to interpret the law as they please, we will surely have outbursts as we did with the introduction of SI 64.
Why can we not just have simple and straightforward laws which are appropriate for the end users? The Cereal example is just one of the many provisions in the Ministry of Industry Control of goods legislation which shows a complete lack of synchrony with the Implementing Agency. If there is no time to synchronize with ZIMRA, the MOI must at least be kind enough as the Ministry of Environment’s Ozone Depleting Substances Department who will efficiently advise you if they control or do not a product.
In November 2016, I once wrote to the MOI for a written confirmation that Sweets made of sugar did not require an import license after being hassled by ZIMRA about it. I never got a response.
SI 122 is fully known as Statutory Instrument 122 of 2017 Control of Goods (Open General Import License) (Amendment) Notice, 2017(No. 5). It is basically an amalgamation of SI 64 and all the previous amendments to RGN 766. It added more lines to the first schedule list. The total list now stands at a whooping 53 lines. Due to the lack of clarity in the legislation, it becomes even longer when you add items which are listed as exemptions in the Explanatory Note of the SI and those that ZIMRA officers will infer by discretion.
SI 132 of 2015 is the standards assessment legislation. All items listed in the SI require pre-importation inspection.
Hopefully I can get time to understand how the MOI comes up with its controls legislation and share with you soon.
